Uprisings
A Hands-On Guide to the Community Grain Revolution
Published on 17. September 2021
256 pages
978-1-55092-542-5 (ISBN)
Description
This practical guide explores the food security and community sufficiency benefits of growing local grain-and shows you how easy it is to get started.
If we want to reduce our environmental impact, build resiliency in our community, and improve food security, it's up to us to make it happen.
Uprisings shows how communities across North America can take action by reviving local grain production.
Environmental journalist Sarah Simpson profiles of ten unique community models demonstrating how local grain production is already making a difference. She then shares step-by-step instructions for small-scale grain production that will turn any community into a hotbed of revolution. Learn about:
- How locally grown wheat, barley, and other grains can impact a community
- How to start a community grain project from scratch
- How to plant, grow, harvest, thresh, winnow, and store your grain
- How to use whole and sprouted grains in your kitchen
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
11/2013
New Society Publishers
€39.83
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Persons
Heather McLeod is the co-owner of Makaria Farm and the cofounder of the successful community grain-growing project, Island Grains. She is a passionate believer in re-skilling and founder of the Renaissance Women, a group dedicated to personal empowerment through relearning basic skills. Heather has been published in Small Farm Canada, The New Quarterly, The Dalhousie Review and Room (of One's Own), and she writes a regular farming column for The Winnipeg Review.Sarah Simpson is an award-winning Canadian journalist. She currently reports for the Cowichan Valley Citizen and her stories have been featured in various major daily newspapers such as the Globe and Mail and the Vancouver Province. Her coverage of local issues such as the Island Grains project has been recognized in the Environmental Initiative and Community Service categories of the Canadian Community Newspapers Association's Better Newspapers Competition Awards and the British Columbia & Yukon Community Newspapers Association Ma Murray Awards.
Content
Introduction
Provides an overview of our personal experience learning that it's possible to grow grains even if you don't have a combine, our subsequent creation of Island Grains, and the book's objective: to share ideas, best practices and cautions so that the reader can join with other likeminded grainies to start a community grain-growing project.Provides oodles of inspiration and practical advice/information.
The Case Studies
This section provides case studies of 6-7 different community grain-growing models spanning North America. Models will be confirmed following further research, with New Society Publisher's input, and will ideally be located in the West Coast, East Coast and Central region of each country.
Case study #1: Kootenay Grain CSA
A case study of the Kootenay Grain CSA (the first grain CSA in Canada), including how it began, how it works, its successes and benefits (including participants' testimonials), challenges it's faced and how it's overcome them, and recommendations for how the model could be applied to other communities.
Case study #2: Island Grains
A case study of Island Grains, including how it began, how it evolved over three years, its successes and benefits (including participants' testimonials), challenges we faced and how we overcame them, and recommendations for how the model could be applied to other communities.
Other possible case studies:
Canada:
. Urban Grains (Lower Mainland, British Columbia; began around the same time as Island Grains)
. Cedar Down Farm (they hope to start a grain CSA in Neustadt, Ontario)
. Haliburton Grain CSA (Haliburton County, Ontario)
. Country Thyme Farm (Bowden, Alberta)
United States:
. PioneerValley Community Grain CSA (Shutesbury, Massachusetts)
. White Oak Grains (Belchertown, Massachusetts)
Summary
Mentions of other models in existence, ideas for possible models and overall conclusions on which models might work best for different scenarios.
The Workshops
Provides high-level, basic information based on case study interviews and other research as a general reference for community grain-growing project participants. Information will be anecdotal rather than scientific.
Grains 101
The different kinds of grains, a brief history of grains and their importance culturally and nutritionally, suggestions as to which grains are most suited to small-scale production (e.g. yield per square foot), as well as the pros and cons of each (e.g. soil benefits, harvesting, threshing).
Growing Grains
Information on choosing a growing site (e.g. access to sun, drainage, soil type), preparing the soil, when and how to plant different grain varieties, irrigation, and weeding. Includes a general timeline for when different grains can be planted in North America.
Harvesting Grains
Information on when and how to harvest grains on a small-scale, as well as threshing, winnowing and storage tips.
Eating Grains
Information on milling, as well as some of the easiest, tastiest recipes we've collected for whole grains: sprouted wheat bread, rye berry salad, grain casserole.
Index
About the Author
Provides an overview of our personal experience learning that it's possible to grow grains even if you don't have a combine, our subsequent creation of Island Grains, and the book's objective: to share ideas, best practices and cautions so that the reader can join with other likeminded grainies to start a community grain-growing project.Provides oodles of inspiration and practical advice/information.
The Case Studies
This section provides case studies of 6-7 different community grain-growing models spanning North America. Models will be confirmed following further research, with New Society Publisher's input, and will ideally be located in the West Coast, East Coast and Central region of each country.
Case study #1: Kootenay Grain CSA
A case study of the Kootenay Grain CSA (the first grain CSA in Canada), including how it began, how it works, its successes and benefits (including participants' testimonials), challenges it's faced and how it's overcome them, and recommendations for how the model could be applied to other communities.
Case study #2: Island Grains
A case study of Island Grains, including how it began, how it evolved over three years, its successes and benefits (including participants' testimonials), challenges we faced and how we overcame them, and recommendations for how the model could be applied to other communities.
Other possible case studies:
Canada:
. Urban Grains (Lower Mainland, British Columbia; began around the same time as Island Grains)
. Cedar Down Farm (they hope to start a grain CSA in Neustadt, Ontario)
. Haliburton Grain CSA (Haliburton County, Ontario)
. Country Thyme Farm (Bowden, Alberta)
United States:
. PioneerValley Community Grain CSA (Shutesbury, Massachusetts)
. White Oak Grains (Belchertown, Massachusetts)
Summary
Mentions of other models in existence, ideas for possible models and overall conclusions on which models might work best for different scenarios.
The Workshops
Provides high-level, basic information based on case study interviews and other research as a general reference for community grain-growing project participants. Information will be anecdotal rather than scientific.
Grains 101
The different kinds of grains, a brief history of grains and their importance culturally and nutritionally, suggestions as to which grains are most suited to small-scale production (e.g. yield per square foot), as well as the pros and cons of each (e.g. soil benefits, harvesting, threshing).
Growing Grains
Information on choosing a growing site (e.g. access to sun, drainage, soil type), preparing the soil, when and how to plant different grain varieties, irrigation, and weeding. Includes a general timeline for when different grains can be planted in North America.
Harvesting Grains
Information on when and how to harvest grains on a small-scale, as well as threshing, winnowing and storage tips.
Eating Grains
Information on milling, as well as some of the easiest, tastiest recipes we've collected for whole grains: sprouted wheat bread, rye berry salad, grain casserole.
Index
About the Author
